All quiet on library plan

Residents who want to vote later this month on the Shelter Island Library‘s request for a raise in taxpayer support for its 2012 budget may register today, Thursday, October 20 from 3 to 7 p.m. at the library. Residents who are already registered to vote do not need to register again.

The library held a hearing on its budget at the library on Tuesday night. No one from the public attended.

Absentee ballots are available from the school district clerk, Deborah Vecchio, by mail or online. Call 749-0302, extension 403 for information.

The vote will take place Saturday, October 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the school library, not the public library. The voting location is switched for that vote because of renovations on the lower level of the library.

Voters will be asked to approve a 4.5 percent increase in tax revenues for the Shelter Island Public Library even as the library trims spending by $5,409 or .9 percent from $583,100 to $577.691, according to the 2012 budget proposal.

Facing an anticipated drop of 26 percent in non-tax revenues as insurance, payroll and other costs rise, the library board will ask voters to increase the amount the library receives through taxation by $20,941 from $460,500 to $481,441.

If voters reject the proposal, the library would receive the same amount in tax revenue that it received this year.

If voters approve the increase, library officials said, the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed valuation would be $0.1576, an increase of .6 percent from $0.1518 in 2011, based on a median Shelter Island property assessment of $640,000. The library tax bill for that property would be $100.86, up $4.47 from the last bill.